Reading between the lines a little, you seem to be suggesting that if Newton says “It’s true that we returned in time for dinner!” that’s just an attempt to assert the privilege of his beliefs over the boy’s, and we know that because Newton is unaware of the simulators.
Yes? No? Something else?
If I understood that right, then I reject it. Sure, Newton is unaware of the simulators, and may have beliefs that the existence of the simulators contradicts. Perhaps it’s also true that the little boy is missing two toes on his left foot, and Newton believes the boy’s left foot is whole. There’s undoubtedly vast numbers of things that Newton has false beliefs about, in addition to the simulators and the boy’s foot.
None of that changes the fact that Newton and the boy had beliefs about the rocket and the clock, and observed events supported one of those beliefs over the other. This is not just Newton privileging his beliefs over the boy’s; there really is something (in this case, the programming of the simulation) that Newton understands better and is therefore better able to predict.
If “reality” means anything at all, the thing it refers to has to include whatever made it predictably the case that Newton was arriving for dinner on time. That it also includes things of which Newton is unaware, which would contradict his predictions about other things were he to ever make the right observations, doesn’t change that.
You’ve mostly lost me, here.
Reading between the lines a little, you seem to be suggesting that if Newton says “It’s true that we returned in time for dinner!” that’s just an attempt to assert the privilege of his beliefs over the boy’s, and we know that because Newton is unaware of the simulators.
Yes? No? Something else?
If I understood that right, then I reject it. Sure, Newton is unaware of the simulators, and may have beliefs that the existence of the simulators contradicts. Perhaps it’s also true that the little boy is missing two toes on his left foot, and Newton believes the boy’s left foot is whole. There’s undoubtedly vast numbers of things that Newton has false beliefs about, in addition to the simulators and the boy’s foot.
None of that changes the fact that Newton and the boy had beliefs about the rocket and the clock, and observed events supported one of those beliefs over the other. This is not just Newton privileging his beliefs over the boy’s; there really is something (in this case, the programming of the simulation) that Newton understands better and is therefore better able to predict.
If “reality” means anything at all, the thing it refers to has to include whatever made it predictably the case that Newton was arriving for dinner on time. That it also includes things of which Newton is unaware, which would contradict his predictions about other things were he to ever make the right observations, doesn’t change that.